1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to items of jewelry, and in particular to a modular simulated gem and gem setting jewelry arrangement.
2. Brief Description of the Art
Unitary jewelry items and/or modular links for forming jewelry bracelets, necklaces, pendants, and rings are well known. The so-called tennis bracelet, for example, is a bracelet having a series of connected modular units, each unit comprising an actual diamond or other gem and a setting therefor.
Reference is made to the following U.S. patents:                Des. Pat. No. 110,568; L. Garfinkel        U.S. Pat. No. 1,189,497; A. Schwartzman        U.S. Pat. No. 1,589,423; H. Payton        U.S. Pat. No. 1,344,365; H. Wachenheimer        U.S. Pat. No. 2,538,090; H. Ferragamo        U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,038; Branca et al.        Des. Pat. No. 146,779; M. Slater        Des. Pat. No. 117,577; J. Sand        Des. Pat. No. 257,017; J. Barr        Des. Pat. No. 156,650; W. W. Pearce et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,489; L. Strong        Des. Pat. No. 48,950; C. Rosenberger        U.S. Pat. No. 1,410,366; E. H. Buchman        Des. Pat. No. 131,847; W. W. Hobe        U.S. Pat. No. 1,153,362; J. C. Wacha        Des. Pat. No. 42,643; H. H. Meyers        Des. Pat. No. 176,664; Adolph Katz        Des. Pat. No. 143,588; O. Green        Des. Pat. No. 265,639; Josef J. Barr        Des. Pat. No. 84,213; A. E. R. Speidel        Des. Pat. No. 56,605; H. Grasmuk        Des. Pat. No. 151,904; A. Katz        Des. Pat. No. 145,426; J. Braunstein        Des. Pat. No. 144,901; J. Braunstein        Des. Pat. No. 160,241; P. Bardach        
Reference is also made to prior U.S. patent applications of the inventor of the present invention as follows: patent application Ser. No. 07/572,678, filed Aug. 23, 1990 for “BRACELET DESIGN”, which is a continuation application of Design Application Serial No. 397,094 filed Aug. 22, 1989 entitled “BRACELET OR THE LIKE”; and patent application Ser. No. 09/224,936 filed Dec. 31, 1998 entitled “DECORATIVE JEWELRY ITEM”. All of the applications mentioned in this paragraph are incorporated herein by this reference.
Non-patent references of interest may include:    1. “Charms” catalog, Page 136, Item #136-20, by Americas GOLD, 650 South Hill St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90014′    2. “Liberty Collections” catalog, Pages 4 and 21, by Liberty I. Exchange, 333 Washington St. #203-1, Boston, Mass. 02108;    3. “Diamond Flower” jewelry by S&R Designs, Inc., Marlton, N.J.;    4. Items #P10529, #84619, #84622, National Jeweler, May 16, 1997;    5. Janet Alix necklace, Jewelers' Circular Keystone, May, 1997;    6. Catalog Item #4D, Skalet Gold, 3600 N. Talman Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60618;    7. Caroline Ballou Collection, June Las Vegas Show, K25–K27, and Barnett Robinson, Inc. June Las Vegas Show, Galleria #10;    8. Item N362, P.Q.C. Jewelry, National Jeweler, Jun. 1, 1998, Page 142;    9. “Love Tears” collection, by Studs, Inc., 42 W. 48 St., New York, N.Y. 10036;    10. Slide pendant, by Superior Diamond Cutters Inc., 589 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017;    11. Uni-Creation, Inc., Emby International, Inc. collection, 589 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017;    12. A Promotional Supplement To JCK, May 1997, Pages 178, 179;    13. Item SS424, Corona Jewellery Company, 16 Ripley Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M6S 3N9, Canada;    14. “Bezel-set jewelry, California Gold Center, 606 S. Hill St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90014;    15. “Partners” fashion jewelry, Cache fashion watches, Mervyn's California catalog flyer, 1998, Page 11;    16. California Precision Products Co. Catalog “Laser Spot-Welding Systems”, One Industrial Court, Riverside, R.I. 02915;    17. Maty, Collection Automne Hiver 97–98, Valeur 30F, No. 76.
The jewelry items shown and described in the art noted above take on various aesthetically pleasing forms for displaying gems, real or simulated, in a variety of visual and structural configurations.
Channel settings and bezel settings that use real gems increase the price of a jewelry item dramatically.
In all such items of the prior art in which a gem or simulated gem is mounted in a gem setting, the gem or simulated gem is positioned brought down from above the setting and secured in place. In assembling the gem and gem setting combination, typically a series of upwardly directed prongs project from the setting, also referred to as a “base”, and the gemstone, or simulated gemstone, is lowered to fit within the upwardly extending prongs, after which the series of prongs are bent inwardly and downwardly to embrace the gem or simulated gem. While this configuration displays the gem in the foreground relative to the setting, there are many disadvantages to such construction.
In particular, with the prongs of the setting exposed, it is relatively easy to snag clothing or inflict minor injuries to the skin of a person by an inadvertent scraping action. Moreover, the prongs of the setting base are unsightly, detracting from the aesthetic qualities of the item of jewelry.
If one were to conceive of the idea of avoiding the unsightliness of upwardly extending gem mounting prongs, the idea would be quickly rejected, due to the fact that if a precious stone, for example a diamond or ruby, is mounted below the upper surface of the setting base, the pointed bottom of the stone would penetrate the skin of the user even more so than is commonly done even with stones mounted from the top of a setting base or bezel. The pointed bottom of a precious stone is, by design, formed with specific depth and angles to capture as much light as possible for reflection through the stone, thereby enhancing the brilliance and spectacle of the gem.
Yet another disadvantage of the use of prior art unitary modules for connection in series to form a tennis bracelet, for example, is that such bracelet construction is rather labor intensive, each modular unit having to be connected to an adjacent unit, and for a bracelet with, typically thirty or more, individual modules, the cost of the bracelet to the ultimate consumer may be inflated beyond expectation of the purchaser who values the item of jewelry on the basis of its precious stone content. Typical prong, channel, and bezel settings not only use expensive gems that sometimes get damaged during the setting procedure, but these types of settings themselves are costly. The purchaser would be greatly benefitted by a less costly manufacturing process, since, for the same purchase price, the purchaser would receive more or larger stones, simulated or real. Such simulated or real stones of a greater quality. There is therefore a need in the art for reducing the manufacturing costs of multi-modular jewelry items.
One solution to avoid employing upwardly extending gem mounting prongs is found in the aforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/224,936 in which a gem or simulated gem is inserted from below into a hollow base member having a top bezel with and opening therein to expose the gem or simulated gem below.